Psalms 101

Wesley: I will praise thee, O Lord, for thy mercy and justice, which thou hast so eminently discovered in the government of the world and of thy people; and I will make it my care to imitate thee herein. The song is praise and imitation together—steadfast love and justice held up as the pattern of rule.

David freely vows before the throne is fully his. Mercy and justice are God's first; the king's music is a living resolve to copy them. Grace enables the vow; the singer still must sing and then walk what he sings.

Calvin: to sing of mercy and of judgment is equivalent to declaring in solemn terms that he would be a just and an upright king. Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I sing psalms: he acknowledges that it was by the favor of God that he was appointed to so distinguished an office. He comprehends all princely virtues under these two particulars, mercy and judgment.

The song is first thanksgiving for a calling God gave, then a vow shaped by that gift. Mercy and justice are not private taste; they are the King's own virtues under which David will rule.

Wesley: I will manage all my affairs with wisdom and integrity. When—God is often said in scripture to come to men, when he fulfills a promise to them. House—in my court and family, as well as in my public administrations. Integrity begins at home before it fills a palace.

The blameless way is pondered and then walked. The cry "when will you come" is longing for the promise's fulfillment, not despair of agency. Private integrity is the rehearsal for public rule; grace enables, the king must still walk.

Calvin: I will behave myself prudently in a perfect way. Almost all kings are intoxicated with the splendors of royalty; David protests he will look warily to himself. Wisdom consists in uprightness, not in wicked devices. Till thou comest to me: although he continued a private person, he did not cease to follow after uprightness—setting the midst of his house against palaces and public buildings.

The vow is already practiced in the private house under God's appointment. Self-control under rising power is rare grace; the perfect way is integrity God requires of the king he has named.

Worthless things will not be set before the eyes; the work of those who fall away is hated and must not cling. Wesley's particulars of the vow begin here: what the eyes entertain becomes the court's climate.

Refusal is an act of the will under grace. Hate of apostasy's work is moral, not theatrical. The danger is clinging—evil that sticks if not shut out. Keep the eyes; the heart follows.

Calvin: to set a wicked thing before one's eyes is to purpose wickedness. He declares he will turn away from all wickedness; no man can be a just punisher of wrong who does not abhor it with all his heart. He will never have any share in wicked defections from the path of rectitude.

The king's eyes are a public office. Hatred of falling away is the prerequisite of judgment; consent to worthless things unfits the sword.

Wesley: Depart—shall be turned out of my court. Know—not own nor countenance. The perverse heart is expelled; evil is neither owned nor winked at.

Distance from perversity is a lived policy. "Have nothing to do with evil" is refusal to countenance it, not pretended ignorance. The court is cleaned by choices that can still be resisted or kept.

Calvin: he protests he will be free from all perfidiousness and wickedness—he will keep himself from wrongdoing and will not even know what it is to do wrong to his neighbors. The second clause expounds the first: I will not know evil.

Purity of the ruler's heart is not optional decoration. Knowing evil here is owning and practicing it; the king under God renounces both.

Secret slander and haughty arrogance will not be endured. David's vow now names concrete vices that poison a people: whispered ruin and proud eyes.

Destroy and not endure are judicial acts of a king, not private vengeance. The hearer who is not a king still learns to refuse the tongue and the look. Grace schools the will against both.

Calvin: he speaks of the duty of a king armed with the sword. Detraction and pride are offensive to all good men, but not all have the right to cut them off. David, placed on the royal throne, received a sword from God's hand. Secret slander is ambush and poison. The proud are lofty of eyes and wide of heart—never satisfied unless they swallow the world. Good order requires princes to repress pride.

Office and calling bound his hands until God gave the sword; then justice must not sleep. Gentleness is required of God's children; the king's endurance of arrogance would betray the simple.

Favor falls on the faithful; the blameless walker shall minister. The positive half of the vow matches the refusals: whom he will keep near is as important as whom he will cut off.

Faithfulness and the blameless way are paths people walk under enabling grace. Preferring such company is a choice of court and conscience. The king's table catechizes the land.

Calvin: a wise prince makes the faithful of the land his intimate friends and takes as servants those distinguished for personal worth. Though a prince be the best of men, if his officers are corrupt his subjects gain little. Servants are the hands of a prince; avaricious or fraudulent hands overthrow good determinations. He speaks of the faithful first, because talents without fidelity never rightly execute judgment.

God cares who stands near the throne. Preferring the faithful is how a king serves the people's peace under providence.

Deceit shall not dwell; lies shall not continue before his eyes. The house and the gaze stay clean. Wesley's "know—not own nor countenance" still governs the door.

Dwelling and continuing are permissions a ruler grants or refuses. Truthfulness is not optional polish; it is the condition of nearness. Keep the house; the kingdom follows the household.

Calvin: this may cover magistrates and household servants; having spoken of officers generally, he now speaks of those near the king's person. When chief counselors are deceitful, they become a source of all corruptions and a banner of licentiousness. Authority that cannot hold under the domestic roof is of little worth in state affairs.

The king's house is the seedbed of public justice. Lies before his eyes would train a nation to lie.

Wesley: Early—speedily; as soon as I am seated in the throne. Morning by morning names prompt, repeated justice, not a single show of force. The city of the LORD is to be kept from evildoers.

The vow aims at a holy city under a king who acts. Speed and perseverance matter; delay trains wickedness. Arminian interpreters still refuse to make this verse a blank check for cruelty—justice must be authentic and measured, yet not asleep.

Calvin: he will endeavor to purge the land from infamous persons. Early, in the plural mornings, denotes unremitted exertion. If princes are supine, they never seasonably remedy evils; they must oppose beginnings. Strictness not carried to excess is pleasing to God; cruel kindness that gives loose reins to the wicked is not. As David's kingdom was a faint image of Christ's, set Christ before your view—he will call hypocrites to account and separate sheep from goats; if he tarries, think of that morning which will suddenly dawn.

Reformed accent and shared christology: the morning purge of the city of the LORD finds its fullness in Christ's kingdom. Both camps may confess the Son's final cutting off of evildoers without turning the verse into a modern political weapon.